Trying to attract new readers via this summer’s epic crossover movie comes Marvel Comic’s Avengers Assemble #1, an all new Avengers series that focuses on the cast of the upcoming movie and eases the movie audience into the vast Marvel Universe.

The Avengers Versus The *Brand-New* Zodiac! • One Of The Greatest Avengers Villains Of All Time Gets Reinvented For The Modern Age Just In Time For The Blockbuster Movie Event Of The Summer! • A Perfect Jumping-On Point Featuring The Cast Of The Summer Blockbuster But In Marvel Universe Continuity!

The issue hits stands on Wednesday, March 14th, 2012, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art from Mark Bagley.

I think it is a safe assumption that we’ll get a taste of the team up flick at the end of this weekend’s Captain America, likely after the credits. Are you excited for The Avengers? I can’t wait to see more…

You find out something new every day. Browsing Marvel Comic’s official website, I found out about Free Mondays in their digital comics section. Every Monday they post five issues online for everyone to view free of change. Lets take a look at what we have this week.

Wolverine: Mr. X #1
Written by Frank Tieri. Art by Brandon Peterson & Francesco Mattina.
The Story: Mr. X is back for a rematch and revenge on the only man who’s ever beaten him: Wolverine! Find out everything you never knew about one of the most dangerous psychopaths in the Marvel Universe. The first time these two met, Wolverine barely escaped with his life, and this time…well, one thing’s for sure, you’ll never see the end coming but you’ll love how you got there!

X-23 #1
Written by Marjorie Liu. Art by Alina Urusov, Nuno Plati, & Filipe Andrade.
The Story:X-23 has spent her short life being used by those in power, from the military to the X-Men. But when she is forced to confront a being who can control her life with nothing but a thought, will X-23 finally learn how to fight — not for others, but herself? Guest-starring NYX!

Mighty Avengers #35
The Story: SIEGE BLOCKBUSTER TIE-IN!! SALVATION Pt. 1 of 2 “Heir Apparent” THE AVENGERS’ GREATEST THREAT RETURNS! AND HE’S NOT ALONE… A rag-tag team of Mighty Avengers are thrust onto the front lines of SIEGE…with no one to lead them! And where’s HANK PYM? Trapped in Pym-Space with his greatest enemy, his sinister cybernetic “son”, ULTRON! A war on two fronts, a team divided, and when it’s over…not everyone will be coming back! Big threats, big changes, and the biggest Avengers surprise of them all revealed!

X-Factor Forever #1
Written by Louise Simonson. Art by Dan Panosian.
The Story: THEY’RE BACK! Once they were Xavier’s young charges: mutant teens who bore the responsibility of protecting a world that hated them. But time has hardened these five X-Men, forcing them to reimagine their mission and purpose. And now, the original dream-team returns to fight the one threat that’s haunted them since the day they took on the X-Factor name. Join legendary X-scribe Louise Simonson as she reunites with the title and characters she made famous for an epic in the FOREVER tradition!

You have until next week to check out these issues, while next week will bring us five new issues, including Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #61, X-Men: Second Coming #1, Spider-Man: Fever #1, SIF #1, Marvel Zombies 5 #1.

Marvel Studios has released a poster for their new upcoming animated series, The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Featured in the poster are four of Marvel’s “big guns”, Hulk, Ironman, Thor, and Captain America. I really like the look and animation style of the new series. Reminds me of the classic Ironman and Fantastic Four series from the 90s.

Missing from the poster are Ant Man and The Wasp, both who have been confirmed to be in the series. This Saturday at Comic Con, Marvel and Disney will be premiering the first two episodes, then the series is expected to start in the fall. The art is pretty cool and the team lineup is perfect. I really hope that the series is good and that the upcoming film will be even better!

While on the subject of the film version, at Comic Con we finally got confirmation from Joss Whedon himself, that he will indeed be directing The Avengers for Marvel Comics. With Ed Norton out as Bruce Banner, I am hoping that Marvel reveals who will be the new Hulk at Comic Con. Rumors are pointing towards Mark Ruffalo, who I think is an excellent actor and has the look for Banner. Robert Downey Jr, Samuel L Jackson, Chris Hemsworth, and Chris Evans are all confirmed to be reprising their roles as Ironman, Nick Fury, Thor, and Captain America respectably. We haven’t had any word on who might be portraying Ant-Man or Wasp, who usually get the short end of the stick (see above poster, also). I could picture someone like Nathan Fillion as Ant-Man, but I have no ideas for Wasp.

It is here, Marvel Comics’ AGE OF HEROES. And with it, the Marvel universe pulls out of the darkness that has held comics for the past few years and gets back to having true heroes. Today, both Age of Heroes #1 and Avengers #1 hit stands.

Age of Heroes launches the “Heroic Age” and spotlights life for some of Marvel’s biggest heroes. With Norman Osborn defeated, the Avengers have one last foe to face for the public’s opinion, J. Jonah Jameson, the Mayor of NYC. In Avengers #1, who will be apart of the new team? With Kang the Conqueror arriving from the future and ready to brawl, who will stop him? I’m assuming Ironman, Thor, Captain America, Wolverine, and Spider-Man are safe bets! 🙂

From DC Comics we have Brightest Day #2, what does it mean to the DCU, and The Legion of Super-Heroes #1, which relaunches DC’s heroes from the future. Image Comics has The Walking Dead #72 and Astounding Wolf-Man #23. Dark Horse has Emily the Strange: The 13th Hour #3. What will you be buying this week?

I’m really excited that the Avengers will be assembling, it just sucks that we have to wait three years for it to happen.

Marvel has revealed that a new Avengers animated series is beginning production to coincide with the releases of their live actions films The First Avenger: Captain America and The Avengers. The show will be titled The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and will be produced by Marvel Animation.

The series will feature the same team that is rumored to be taking center stage in the film adaptation; Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Ant-Man, and the Wasp. The heroes are forced to come together “when the planet is threatened by super villains, time traveling conquerors, alien invaders, mythical monsters and mad robots bent on the total destruction of humanity”.

Also in production from Marvel Animated are Wolverine and the X-Men, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Marvel Super Hero Squad, and The Black Panther.